20 Game Characters with Awesome Facial Hair | Movember Special

With Movember now in full swing, you can’t help but see facial hair appearing all over the place. For those that are doing it for charity (by donating at Movember.com) well done, but for those who sport a constant face warmer, we salute you. As you will see various articles about gaming mustaches I thought I would go one better by including any kind of facial hair allowing us to include the classic goatee worn by Zangief in the street Fighter series to the chin fluff decorating the face of Eddie in Brutal Legend.

Haggar | Final Fight

Mike Haggar is the Mayor of Metro City and sports a classic Copstash Standard. This shirtless, muscle bound civil servant takes on the Mad Gang in his original outing and was the subsequent star of various other games from Saturday Night Slam Masters to the Street Fighter series.

Mario/Wario

Mario is the first person most people think of when it comes to moustaches and video game characters. His bushy face caterpillar is now so iconic that the very shape denotes the Mario character. The world of Mario, however, is not devoid of other hairy friends as his brother Luigi has one, his enemies Wario and Waluigi have them and even King Bo Bomb has one. It must be the fashion in Mario world, or land or galaxy.

Gordon Freeman | Half Life

Half life’s Gordon Freeman is the coolest theoretical physicist you are likely to come across and he not only dons a HEV suit but also a tidy ‘Van Dyke’ style goatee. He may be the strong silent type but his facial hair speaks volumes.

Gears | Gears of War

The ranks of the Gears are jam packed with facial hair from Marcus Phoenix’s little ‘soul patch’, through Dom’s full beard all the way to Corporal Barrick’s impressive ‘Hulibee’.

Victor Zangief | Street fighter 2

This Russian bear-of-a-man first appeared in Street Fighter 2 and whilst he was slow moving, if he ever landed a punch you would certainly feel it. Similarly, if he ever got hold of you, his spinning pile driver would certainly finish you off. Zangief enjoys a full beard that balances his Mohawk hair style perfectly.

Solid Snake | Metal Gear Solid

This sneaky secret agent loves to hide and it turns out, so does his top lip. Snake has been growing his hair throughout his games starting as a clean cut whippersnapper, through the stubble days until finally growing old gracefully with a grey Copstash Standard.

Dr Robotnic / Doctor Eggman | Sonic The Hedgehog

Sonic’s main antagonist and tech loving mad scientist Dr Robotnic lets his moustache roam free and it has spread out in all directions trying to escape his evil face. His moustache mixes the handle bar style with the trucker creating what is know in ‘mo circles’ as the mad scientist thanks to crazy characters like Eggman.

Lynch | Kane and lynch

Wife murderer, turned contract killer James Seth Lynch uses a full beard to hide his dark demeanor. When tidy, his beard bears some resemblance to the ducktail but when in the heat of the action looks more like a short boxed beard.

Andrew Ryan | Bioshock

Andrew Ryan has the classic pencil mustache giving him an air of class and distinction. Being brought up during the Russian Revolution he yearned for order in his later life and created the stunning underwater city of Rapture for his own master race. As a man who like to control his surroundings he also like to control his facial hair as the split pencil mustache is notoriously difficult to keep tidy.

Harry Tipper | Time Spitters

It’s time we get a little funky and enjoy the bushy handlebar that is Harry Tipper’s moustache. Harry was one of the few players to appear in all the three Timsplitters games and he presence in all this games was all down to his disco loving lip warmer.

Eddie Riggs | Brutal Legend

Eddie was a roadie for Kabbage Boy before being knocked unconscious and whisked to the heavy metal world of Ormagoden. After finding out he’s the offspring of a Warrior and a Demon he goes on to save the underworld. Eddie rocks a jet black soul patch similar to that of Marcus Phoenix and whilst small, it still looks pretty awesome.

Gannon | Legend of Zelda

The only ginger facial hair to make our list and what facial hair. Ganon can be seen wearing his beard in various styles. Iit is most commonly seen in the Chin Curtain style with a little ‘Old Dutch’ thrown in for good measure. This beautifully red chin tickler merges seamlessly with his hair which makes all the more cool.

Captain Price – Call of Duty

Captain Prince has possibly one of the best mustaches in gaming. His bushy mutton chops and bouncy British accent shows a softer side to the SAS trained killing machine.

Dr Willy / Dr Light | Mega man

Although Dr Willy created half of one of gaming classic heroes Mega Man, Dr Willy was a bad apple and tried to take over the world with his army of robots. Of course, if you removed his mad hair and crazy mustache he wouldn’t look half as scary so we salute the evilness of your hairy upper lip.

Rufus | Street Fighter 4

This tubby martial artist from Street Fighter 4 shocked everyone with the speed at which he can fight. His aim was to defeat Ken and prove that he is the best fighter in America. Whilst Ken enjoys flowing blonde locks from his head, Rufus has gone for a bushy blonde Winnfield which compliments his receding hairline and blonde ponytail.

King of the Cosmos | Katamari

It makes total sense that the king of the cosmos would have a moustache. And what a moustache it is, a tight and tidy handlebar with bonus anchor goatee.

Dudley | Street fighter 4

Dudley is a fantastic boxer and impeccable gentleman who seeks perfection both in and out of the ring. Although his back story isn’t has colorful as his Street Fighter brethren his mustache won over the fans as handlebar lovers everywhere said they would love to see the character in future games.

Sgt. Avery Johnson | Halo

Obviously inspired by Sergeant Apone in Aliens this ‘gung-ho’ marine is full of spunk and one hell of a soldier. Avery Junior Johnson sports a classic tash that is no mess and little maintenance. His mustache helped him rise through the ranks and eventually become major.

Salvador | Borderlands 2

Salvador is the Gunzerker-class warrior in Borderlands 2. His main skill, Gunzerking, allows him to dual wield any of the two weapons in the game for a short time. This skill would not have been possible without his mammoth anchor beard.

Master Onion | PaRappa The Rapper

Chop Chop Master Onion is an onion headed sensei who teaches Karate to young PaRappa in the first stage of the first game. Being a karate master he sports a long Asian Winnfield down to his sholders.

Don’t know your handlebar from you Winnfield… check out this useful chart!

Summary

Article Name

20 Game Characters with Awesome Facial Hair | Movember

Description

Gaming facial hair that includes the classic goatee worn by Zangief in Street Fighter to the chin fluff decorating the face of Eddie in Brutal Legend.

With Movember now ended, you can’t help but see facial hair all over the place. For those that did it for...

Ian GarstangDecember 3, 2014

Gaming Debugged is a gaming blog covering mainstream and indie gaming, game design and development, news and comment from the games industry.

I like to mix up the content by providing useful information such as 'how to get started in the games industry' with the big questions (down the pub) such as 'who are the biggest game bad guys, which game location would i go on vacation to' and 'which gaming hero could you take home to meet your mum'.

Gaming Debugged (previously Debug Design) is the personal website and blog of indie gamer Ian Garstang, Graphic designer, SEO enthusiast, Indie game designer and developer and creator of Graphic Buffet, an online resource for indie game developers selling vector game graphics, art and assets for use in video games development.